Byzantine emperor, Manuel I Komnenos, had previously competed with Géza II on many occasions, as he was determined to expand his influence over Hungary.
Manuel I and Stephen III eventually resolved this through a peace accord signed in 1163, in which the Hungarian King's younger brother Béla, was to be sent to Constantinople in surety.
Lucas, Archbishop of Esztergom, who refused to perform the coronation, delaying the ceremony for almost a year, also supported the aspirations of Géza, who aimed to continue the anti-Byzantine and pro-papal policies of Stephen III.
He imprisoned his mother too, but Prince Géza and his several partisans – including Lawrence and possibly Stephen, Archbishop of Kalocsa) – escaped from captivity and fled to the court of Henry II, Duke of Austria in 1174 or 1175 to seek protection.
[7] When Henry refused to extradite Géza, Béla launched plundering raids into Austria, together with Soběslav II, Duke of Bohemia.
[15] According to a Greek codex kept in the Saint Catherine's Monastery, translated by historian Szabolcs de Vajay, Géza adopted the name Ioannes (John) in the Byzantine Empire.
In that year, a group of discontented Hungarian lords during the conspiracy (1209–10) offered the crown to them against their cousin, the ruling monarch Andrew II of Hungary; they lived in "Greek land".
[17][15] Years later, when Andrew II decided to return to Hungary from the Fifth Crusade in early 1218, the troops of Géza's sons attacked his army when he stayed in Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey).